General semiconductor light emitting elements can include a growth substrate; a semiconductor structure layer formed on the growth substrate and including an n-type semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a p-type semiconductor layer; and an n electrode and a p electrode configured to apply a voltage to the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer, respectively. Furthermore, there has been known a semiconductor light emitting element that improves its heat dissipation performance. Specifically, in the semiconductor light emitting element, a semiconductor structure layer is bonded to a support substrate different from a growth substrate, and after that the growth substrate is removed to complete the semiconductor light emitting element. Then, the resulting semiconductor light emitting elements can be secured to a mounting substrate and a phosphor layer for wavelength converting light can be formed thereon. The resulting product can be sealed with a resin to complete a semiconductor light emitting device. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-065726 (or US 2014/191258A1 corresponding to this Japanese publication) discloses a semiconductor light emitting device which has a plurality of chips in a packaging structure and in which some of chips are connected in parallel.
Semiconductor light emitting devices have been widely used as a light source for high-intensity illumination such as for an automobile headlight, a projector, etc. Many of such semiconductor light emitting devices can have a structure in which a plurality of light emitting elements are arranged.
Furthermore, attention has been attracted on a technology for an automobile headlight to control the light distribution shape in real time depending on the situation ahead, specifically, the presence and the positions of oncoming vehicles, preceding vehicles, and the like. With this technology, it would be possible to control the light distribution shape by the automobile headlight, for example, to eliminate the irradiated area where an oncoming vehicle is present from the area irradiated with light from the headlight in real time when the oncoming vehicle is detected during its driving with a high-beam light distribution. This technology can provide a wider field of view to a driver just like when a high beam light distribution is used while it can prevent a glare beam to the oncoming vehicle. This type of light-distribution variable headlight system can be achieved by preparing a semiconductor light emitting device including a plurality of semiconductor light emitting elements arranged in an array shape, and controlling the respective semiconductor light emitting elements to be turned ON/OFF in real time.
When, however, such a light emitting device including a plurality of light emitting elements arranged side by side is produced, the size of the device may increase by the number of the light emitting elements in general. Furthermore, when the size of the light emitting element is decreased in consideration of the size of the light emitting device, the luminance of light emitted from a single element may be decreased to give insufficient amount of light. These disadvantages may hinder the achievement of a high-definition light distribution pattern by a vehicle headlight as described above.